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The rest of the Trojans played the fourth quarter the same way Saturday night.

No overtime — or three — was necessary as the top-seeded Durham High girls basketball team pulled away from No. 2 Mount Shasta for a 62-45 victory in the Northern Section Division V final at Shasta College.

The championship is the Trojans’ fourth in five seasons with the one exception that memorable triple-overtime defeat the same Bears dealt to Durham in the final a year ago at Butte College.

The rematch wasn’t close early or late with the Trojans outscoring Mount Shasta 23-8 in the fourth quarter after Durham broke a 37-37 tie in the third on a last-second drive from Southam.

Lindsey Bryant — who kept reminding her teammates that they weren’t going to let the game go past regulation again — did the same with her play. She had 12 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter including 10 straight for Durham.

“We were striving not to go into overtime this year,” said Bryant, who also totaled 10 rebounds and four steals. “We had enough of that last year.”

The Bears (24-5) didn’t have an answer as they saw their own 14-game wining streak come to an end.

Lily Hitchcock led Mount Shasta with 15 points. Kacey Cain had 10 points. Emily Andrus added all seven of her points in the first quarter, and Samantha Benedict had seven as well.

A 9-0 Durham run in the final minutes increased a 53-43 advantage to 62-43. Mount Shasta got a layup in the final seconds as Durham started celebrating.
Overtime might not have seemed like such a bad result for Durham as Mount Shasta raced to a 10-0 lead in the opening minutes.

Two Southam free throws with 4:25 left in the first quarter finally got the Trojans on the scoreboard. The margin could have been more, but their defense kept the Bears from getting more opportunities.

Andrus was whistled for her fourth foul with 2:23 left in the third period. Mount Shasta managed one more spurt to tie it at 37 on Hitchcock’s third and final 3.

Andrus went back in about the five-minute mark of the fourth, but by then the Trojans were rolling.

“It’s a beautiful victory,” Bryant said. “It’s just a great feeling to finally get it again.”

The junior might have to wait her turn.

One of two seniors on the squad, Southam wasn’t in a hurry to relinquish the plaque anytime soon.

“No. I’m never letting it go,” she said. “It’s the best feeling senior year — being able to win it.”

Paddock, the other senior and teammate of Southam’s since the third grade, had designs on getting it soon enough.

“She can hold on to it for a little bit,” Paddock said. “We’ll split it somehow.”